Thursday, August 23, 2012

Akin was surprised by the reaction, as he naturally assumed the people he was talking to would see nothing controversial in what he was saying. His mistake was that this type of comment is supposed to be limited to discussions with the like-minded, and not on a television interview that anybody can see. Being a Republican is like being a habitual liar: it is damn hard to keep your stories straight.

Part of this conspiracy is the enormous number of anti-scientific beliefs held by a large portion - 10-20% - of the American population. Another part of the conspiracy is that the existence of this belief system is largely hidden (and we are shocked when some of it slips out, as we can't conceive that such a large number of people can be so stupid). Finally, the most important part of the conspiracy is that these beliefs aren't part of some natural native folklore. No, they are created in think tanks funded by the plutocrats with specific political purposes in mind, in this case as part of the anti-abortion/phallocracy program, which is itself part of the culture wars intended to provide support for political policies which are against the class interests of almost all voters. The collection of anti-scientific beliefs denigrates education which just fosters sinful fact-based 'lies' (and thus is self-reinforcing), and always - not a coincidence - backs up extreme right-wing politics (e.g., global warming is a myth).

Akin was surprised by the reaction, as he naturally assumed the people he was talking to would see nothing controversial in what he was saying. His mistake was that this type of comment is supposed to be limited to discussions with the like-minded, and not on a television interview that anybody can see. Being a Republican is like being a habitual liar: it is damn hard to keep your stories straight.

Part of this conspiracy is the enormous number of anti-scientific beliefs held by a large portion - 10-20% - of the American population. Another part of the conspiracy is that the existence of this belief system is largely hidden (and we are shocked when some of it slips out, as we can't conceive that such a large number of people can be so stupid). Finally, the most important part of the conspiracy is that these beliefs aren't part of some natural native folklore. No, they are created in think tanks funded by the plutocrats with specific political purposes in mind, in this case as part of the anti-abortion/phallocracy program, which is itself part of the culture wars intended to provide support for political policies which are against the class interests of almost all voters. The collection of anti-scientific beliefs denigrates education which just fosters sinful fact-based 'lies' (and thus is self-reinforcing), and always - not a coincidence - backs up extreme right-wing politics (e.g., global warming is a myth).